Clannad’s Storyline Explained
- Categories: Anime, News
- Date: Mar 18, 2009 00:51 JST
- Tags: Adaptations, Analysis, Clannad, Visual Novels
Clannad fans have prepared an explanatory diagram which lays out the storyline of Clannad and Clannad After Story in detail; certainly a handy thing considering how convoluted they appear.
This has found its way onto the Japanese Internet, and even 2ch approves of the diagram…
Needless to say, the diagram contains immense spoilers:
Light orbs? Time travel? Wasn’t this a school romance? At any rate, there is no arguing with its huge popularity… “Clannad is Life“, indeed.
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Once again, I'm glad I avoided all this nonsense.
coming from a guy who knows nothing about clannad im sure..
You sir have Failed at life. Your life hasn't started until until you have watched Clannad.
i second that notion
it's a universally accepted rule.
"until you have played Clannad"
There, fixed!
Good job fixing that. You win a cookie. Except I'm all out of cookies so here's one of Sanae's breads. Actually have another 3, on the house.
Enjoy your down syndrome moe and being a virgin for the rest of your life
Troll moar pls
I've watched the show and realized that I've lost lost half my life in doing so.
It's just a troll, nothing to see here... Move along now.
Be quiet, imbecils.
Clannad was disgusting when it came as visual novel and it is still disgusting with the anime. I only managed to watch it through pure will-power.
As a matter of fact, all Key anime is disgusting. The only one that is ok is Kanon, but it still contains alot of disgusting crap.
Even Sukisyo has better storyline, and that is to say alot lol.
Pure willpower? You must have REALLY wanted to see it then.
lol @ key hater
Key Hater and Hitler Lover, lulz.
Key Hater < Life
he/she's not a hater, he/she's a Narcissist...
Narcissist != *
Narcissist ! *
we sail at the same boat
Inb4 something about his/her mom being better or worse :D
Key rules, no arguement
Key goes in hole, can't argue with that one!
btw clannad is overrated, but the blond guy is funny :-)
lol.. FAILED troll is FAILED
die without watching clannad?u sure phail.ur life sucks
The 'last' episode was really bad... =/
seconded
complicated much? :x
Awesome! I just spoiled the ending for Tomoyo After for myself!
I really didn't expect this diagram to bring up spoilers for that shit T_T
lol, it stated:
"Needless to say, the diagram contains immense spoilers:"
Yeah but seing how Tomoyo After have absolutely nothing to do with Clannad ~After Story~ it's not really something i could've anticipated.
Yeah, the same happened to me. Zetsubou shitaaaa!!!
Now I need one of these MIB flashies.
a typical Key/Visual Art ending
someone dies -> miracle happens
Yes, but the way they execute it is what's so beautiful.
As if you could think of something better...
You do realize this anime was based off a VN right? Non-ero VN mostly... in other words, you'd only play it for the storyline so you can cry like a little bitch. Once you're done with a specific route (get the 300hr guide) you receive a light orb that's displayed on the title screen.
Get all the lights, unlock the true/happy end, mind gets blown. Though they didn't animate the route where sunohara gets confused and almost turns gay... have to hope they turn that into an OVA.
I think they referenced that storyline in episode 23 of the first series (Mei was kind of fantasizing about TomoyaXYouhei, IIRC). Seems like the OVA, if we get one (which to my knowledge has not yet been announced), is mostly likely to be Kyou or (maybe) Kappei.
the last episode of after story was indeed pretty descent to say the least..
i know that there are a lot of questions that needs to be answered like the robot who was actually tomoya and the girl is in fact ushio etc.. but i didnt care anymore a long as ushio and nagisa lives then damn screw it just keep them that way and dont kill em no more!
oh and thx for the guide artefact and a pretty damn detailed one too~
hmmm is it me or the eroge version of clannad is missing..?
There WAS no eroge version of Clannad. Clannad only had a clean version. Tomoyo After had an H version, but that was all.
yeah...no killing...please?
As long as we feels good about the ending, who care about those trolls rite ^_^?
The end was so bad, it destroyed the whole story...
meh.
...Nagisa and Ushio living because The robot and the girl in the other world gathered up miracles? How is that bad? You're bad.
I did not expect time travel at all... It does connect things together but why introduce it?
Did anyone watch the movie Primer? The movie specifically dealt with time travel and was so confusing it needed its own time travel chart. Clannad's eerily looks like it.
http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2008/08/22/primer-the-movie/
I'm not against Clannad though. The series is still spectacular and there were moments i wanted to shed man tears.
Well, in the anime he travels in time, but remember that it is based on a "video game". To get the good ending you could replay the game and collect a bunch of magic glowing lights.
So really, he didn't travel in time, he reset his playstation.
Clannad is EPIC! if you have not seen it I'd advise you to Every episode is epic! You will laugh yow WILL cry, its just to epic for life.
Except for the last episode.
No, that one too.
/agree. This was a great series....i cried alot.....i laughed alot......and you got to know each character more than in many other animes so you understood what exactly tomoya was feeling.
Yea I second that!
Firstly, a big unapologetic FUCK YOU to all those anons who come here bashing for the sake of bashing. Don't you have anything better to do than sit there on your fucking ivory tower of lolicon animes and acting all so smart?
Sure, the ending is confusing, but seriously, these Illusionary World segments have been around since episode 1, you should have seen it coming, where the ending will involve the supernatural.
The ending sucked. They should have left it at "Tomoya learns through the hardships that family is the most important thing in life" and "he's been selfish but finally realizes, thanks to all the ppl he met, how his father sacrificed everything to raise him and how happy he was with Nagisa and now Ushio"
so how the hell did clannad suck again?
Ehh..
you know that Tomoya remember everything right?
You know that it is not a total reset right?
Or are you an idiot who need to be force feed with info just to get a simple story?
Yes, but they got resurrected in a non-sensical way. It was more powerful if all the drama had happened for a reason instead of "lol, there is no way we can explain how Ushio is the girl of the other world, she just is"...too much deux ex machina for me
and you know exactly what deus ex machina is.
Sure.
clannad is a grreat anime
lol drama + minfuck + BAWWWWW
*mindfuck
Wow, this is stupid.
this is more confusing than watching A Girl Who Leap Through Time.Have to re-watch the time that i watched Clannad.
Clannad articles are always nests for trolls. I fucking love this series, and it's too easy to rage when someone bashes it for no reason.
And I totally agree with you.
A lot of people in the internet like to use the term Deus Ex Machine but a lot of those idiot doesn't even know the meaning of the word.
"For Example many people say that clannad ending is a Deus Ex Machine."
Look I don't care if you are a troll or you hate the ending, but stop using Deus Ex Machine to describe everything that doesn't make sense. It only proof that you are an idiot.
Look you people know how to use the internet right?
Then look and see what Deus Ex Machina really mean.
You do know you're the only one using Deus Ex right?
Secondly, while it's not the machine Gods of Greece, the Clannad ending is definitely within the spirit of shit coming out of nowhere that is completely incongruent with the established plotline.
You might want to read it yourself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_Ex_Machina
So yes, I agree the time travel thing coming out of nowhere at the end of a school romance is fit to be labeled a "Deus ex" or because it's Japanese "desu ex".
Did you read what I wrote?
I write the internet not sankaku.
see you can't even read.
And if you watch clannad, they did mention about the string theory. which also involve Quantum physics which your put argument to moot.
I bet you didn't even know what quantum physics is right. There are hints about the ending ever since season season one. You just never bother about it, just as you never bother reading what I write. I mention people in the internet like to use the term "Deus Ex Machine" not Sankaku.
This show has nothing to do with quantum physics, and just invokes the concept of a multiverse to rationalize the illusory world with fragments of complete babble from Kotomi.
It's by absolutely no means incongruent with the established plotline. There were multiple allusions to the events of the final episode throughout the series. Kotomi's parents had been researching the existence of multiple worlds. Tomoya suggested that Nagisa shared a mysterious connection with the town. It was mentioned more than once that when a moment of true happiness occurs, an orb of light appears. The entire Misae storyline dealt with the power to grant miracles possessed by the orbs. Just because the viewer wasn't beaten about the face repeatedly with those facts does not mean that they weren't established. It didn't "come out of nowhere" any moreso than Fuuko's route.
Ok, so it didn't came out of nowehere. I'll give you that. It still sucked. A slice of life anime with slice of life drama (No I don't mean the stupid cat-boy or something like that) does not, in my opinion, combine well with such magical solution. In fact, it's unfair for the other characters. Why did Nagisa shared a bond with the town? Why Tomoya's father had to sacrifice all and Tomoya nothing ? (with the eventual pseudo-reset) Why didn't Kotomi's parents come back to life?
This is the problem with lol dragon balls. When someone gets a second chance (out of nowhere, if Tomoya got one because of making other ppl happy, he wasn't the only one doing that), you wonder why them and not others. "Cause they are the main characters" maybe.
p.s: Fuko's rant at the final minutes was irritating as hell.
1) Don't mix up something similar with something familar to you. Quantum phyics deals with probablities and choices which causes different timelines. This is time traveling caused by people's thoughts, which created a different timeline.
2) The story was a school girl romance, why are we talking about time travel again? oh yeah, because Clannd pulled this out of its ass. Yes, there were hints but it is stupid. Let me rephrase this, no you're right it is not DE but its still stupid. And I was forgivening the "so srs!" drama but time travel is for a high school comedy is lame.
3) You seem angry, there there. I'm sorry Clannad is serious business my mistake.
I liked seeing people not die but it took a big amount bs to get there. But, its still no Sunrise so that's a plus.
Oh! The Japanese Internet!
I'm getting one of those installed next week!
So Tomoya really did die right after Ushio. I was wondering what exactly happened when he fell over.
ok, now just give me a Kyou AS :(
I concur with this. Give a Kyou After! The anime butchered my favourite girl ;_;
Go read some forums with Clannad topics and say something interesting that you think happened that wasn't shown on the series like for example Tomoya boning all the girls and Sanae (Nagisa's hot mom) giving tomoyo some hot loving after nagisa died. Its pretty entertaining reading their replies. It's like their all suck into it and they are really emotionally sensitive about it.
oh wow you got me there!
the only reason that attached me to this series is Ushio! shes such a good girl thinking of her makes me go Awwww~
it really hurt me deeply when i found out that she died~ specially that damn dango kazoku playing in my head almost made me cry!
but i was really happy that she was alive again!
repure you misunderstood softbanker's post. He's thinks that it is ridiculous for people to get attached to characters or stories.
On our forum, when everyone is focusing on discussing about the last episode trying to make sense of some of the confusions, out of nowhere he posts stuffs about boning and sex, and that seem to be the main focus of all his posts. You can see him in all his immature glory on our forum:
http://boards.fansub.tv/?showtopic=7716&st=640
Also, he thinks that he is 'superior' to us because he kicks an anime aside as soon as he's done watching it, instead of continuing to search for answers for unresolved questions like the majority of us.
its alright!
thx for pointing this out for me
i guess everybody has their own purpose of being here...whether to piss people off or simply just speaking their mind..
now, now, u dont need logic in anime
like, can you think of any better ending?
Clannad is DORAMA!
I hate Clannad. I'll go watch some more Michiko to Hatchin
Also good. I've been watching both.
STill not sure why he needs to time travel, but heck 2ch is happy :)
then again, it'll ne nice if...
Tomoya meets Kyou in the kindergarten and romance develop. Kyou joins the family and happyily ever after XD
...AHHH?!
Alright, it seems ok for the most part (although it confirmed my suspicions that Tomoya dies in the Eroge... major spoiler there >.<)
Anyway, I got a question: Was Nagisa transported back in time as well? The remark "I was worry that you might had thought it was better to never have met me" obviously indicates that she was very conscious of what Tomoya had just done... Wait I'm not even sure what the hell happened right after they reunited at the Hill again...
And also, anyone know what the impending AS OVA might be about?
This chart certainly fixed the huge wtf I had during the last episode. Yes I haven't played the VN so I have no clue why episode 22 happened the way it did. I guess kyoani cutting out Tomoya's death and making Ushio's speech rather vague didn't help matters as well. Well whatever it was fun to watch...albeit confusing.
What.
So Tomoya got a chance to Revenge his Life(see: Sumaga) or something? No wonder that God has the same voice as Ushio.
wasnt it some guy from 4chan that did the diagram it?
cause i remember that same diagram a being posted some few days ago
Original Content on 4chan?
I doubt someone from 2ch done it unless there's an original one which is in Japanese.
After looking at how convoluted the timeline is and the deus ex machina ending, I'm glad I skipped watching Clannad.
then you'd be a fool. sorry but Clannad and After Story were consistently excellent in pretty much every episode (if memory serves me well) and yes the ending is ridiculously complicated and convoluted but killing Ushio was a fantastic idea. THey're very good at giving you hope and then punching you in the face and the problem comes from where do they go from there. There's probably another way they could have done that but i cant think of one off hand except "he dies of grief," or "he leaves town and eventually kills himself." Neither are satisfying. I mean hell, even AIR TV had some good come out of it.
YES TIMELINE 4 FTW!
@1 tomoyo and nagisa !?
@3 tomoyo and tomoyo !?
tomoyoooo my love
and i dunno clannad actually is time travelling story >_> .and actually the sad end in movie is fixed into good ending
Clannad is ultimate win. I haven't experienced anything until I experienced Clannad.
Fucking Keymo.
To Marine-RX179:
> I never said I was superior just because I am not that emotionally attached to the anime. Yeah I was moved by the story and I was really entertained. And I almost read all your comments before I replied. All you talk is how REALLY confused you are with the ending and how really emotionally to were touched. geez that is sooooo boring. Some asked for it already and it was already answered tsk why ask again and discuss it over an over. You clannad fanboys has no mind of your own that you can't make up your own judgment? Anyway, it was always been my favorite to argue with clannad fanboys. the most favorite was in FAKKU where we get to vote on a MOTEMOTE characters battle. It was really funny how clannad fanboys raged and cried when tomoyo lost againts a rosario+vampire vampire Moka.
First I was like, I wish Key had never existed, then the world would have less overly-melodramatic soap opera nonsense for emo teens with traumatic upbringings to watch in between cutting sessions.
Then I was like, wait, but then I'd never have been able to watch...
...
I thought about it for a minute, and I couldn't think of a single thing Key has done that I'd give a damn about if it were gone.
Therefore: burn, Key, burn.
LOL Key
The Bible effect...someone dies = a miracle happens
The anime perfectly retold the story that the VN had. Its not like they purposely fixed the ending to save Nagisa with some miracles and shit.
In two word, it was because of the light orbs (that he collected after helping others) that the miracle happened and a time travelling was made. Hmmmm. That explaings everything. It wasn't need the game's scenario at the diagram to understand the plot.
lol @ Kyou route :D
Thanks for the chart. I'm missing in the middle. >.<
Fuuuuck, so many KEY haters in this topic. I don't give a shit though, i watched it and loved it until the last episode confused the shit out of me.
Lol @ Time Travel. Obviously some people didn't get the storyline.
Remember the Super String theory? Remember Kotomi's fucking arc? Remember how Ryou says that there are many alternate realities out there? Tomoya just jumped to another one where his wife and daughter doesn't die, all the while saying "Good Bye fucking sadistic world."
It's like Higurashi, except less gore and no killer lolis. lol time travel lol
As for myself, i thoroughly enjoyed the anime (I haven't watched the visual novel completely yet).
Anyways, I would've liked even more if it didn't have all that supernatural stuff (and no fuko), it would've been way better, in my view anyways.
For me, Clannad needed more Fuko. How someone can possibly not love the eternal loli cuckolander starfish lover? Dozo!!
1. Clannad and after Story are FTW
2. After Story's ending is pretty bad for me
3. Key is badass VN maker, but i'm glad they did.
4. hope now for Little Busters! anime or Tomoyo After OVA.
5. *throw salt to troll*
People sure go out of their way to post their hate comments on Clannad don't they? And they do it in a manner as if they've published a better story and attracted as many fans as Key has.
I enjoyed how After Story turned out. It was one of those scenes that plays on emotional moments so well that people can look past rationality and consistency and still enjoy it.
Of course, their lives aren't complete without trolling over Clannad whenever any aspect of the franchise gets brought up. If all the data was backed up on FAKKU! for the last motemote, you'd see what I mean.
Gotta love it when idiots use that as an excuse. YOU CAN'T CRITICIZE ______ BECAUSE YOU'VE NEVER MADE ANYTHING BETTER. Let me turn that retardation around on you: you've never made anything worse than Clannad, so you're not allowed to sing its praises! Sounds ridiculous right? Well it's using the same faulty logic.
Listen, people are perfectly capable of criticism without being MASTER CREATORS at whatever it is they happen to be criticizing. I don't have to be a brilliant composer to know I don't like a song and why, and anyone who suggests otherwise should be criticized as being a dolt...but only by people who have managed to be stupider than them. ROLLEYES.GIF
If people had to create something or be someone better than something or someone they don't like before obtaining a license to criticize said noun, we'd all have to give glowing reviews of EVERYTHING. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to have to live in that world.
The most ironic part of this vacuous arguement is that the very people who bring it up no doubt routinely criticise things at which they're not particularly proficient, or in other words, "have never made anything better."
Yep, that makes you a hypocrite, buddy.
Furthermore, it makes no difference how many emo faggots love Key. Popularity is not a universal quantifier of quality. NASCAR is beloved by millions and millions of people...does that automatically make it good? Everyone in the world used to believe that it was flat...did that make it flat? The answer to these and all questions like them is a resounding NO. In logical debate, this is what's known as an 'argumentum ad populum' fallacy.
tl;dr - You birdbrained teens need to turn away from the ever-present video screen in your life and read a goddamned book some time. That way you'll actually have two brain cells to rub together, so you can actually come up with a cogent rebuttal when getting all defensive about your silly emo drama being flamed.
You sir are obviously not living in Discworld. There the popularity is a quantifier universal of... well, of existence. Just ask any god!
CLANNAD = STUPID PARANOIA
I don't know why i watched the series... ahh, ooh wait.. maybe for the anime characters? bahh that's all.
Another nonsense japanese anime with a stupid story which only japanese ppl can understand.
lack of story like first person shooters..
i really love to shoot you first so you can keep your whiny mouth inside your @$$.
Another Clannad hater #45789
look.. It's the FAILED HUMAN...!!
"possession of several light orbs"
And I thought people on this site were joking when they mentioned Tomoya gathering Dragon balls to save Nagisa.
phew!! avoided spoilers after i open the diagram, I haven't finish after story...
Wow, the ending was much better than I expected and am indeed glad that we got a happy end. Some of the things that were interesting to note was that:
SPOILERS
- Ushio was the girl in the first opening running though the sunflower field.
- They brought back the light orbs and supernatural aspect back into the story.
End of SPOILERS
Overall, great Anime and definitely worth the watch. Though it is kinda sad at times and will force you to reexamine your life, especially when you are still in school and sucking at most things...
Yes this diagram does clear some things up. Finished After story couple of hours ago and I'm pretty happy with the ending. Cheers for Clannad and it's funny/sad/and enjoyable moment's.
Clannad = flame wars
The enormous spoonfeeding from the last anime episode wasn't enough?
This is handy indeed, for I must now watch all the episodes
idk wit you but my thoughts:
[spoiler]
i think people find the ending confusing because they think that ushio and the girl in the other world are exactly the same person.
i think otherwise, i think the girl is just ushio's counterpart in that world the same way the garbage doll is to tomoya but they are not the same entities. if you remember the concept of kotomi's parents there exists many worlds and there can be some connection between these worlds but i doubt the same entity can exist in both
a lot of people were waiting like when is ushio gonna die and become that girl? when the girl "died" we were confused coz were trying to find where it goes to that, but the thing is that girl only had an awareness of ushio and tomoya the same way tomoya had an awareness of the girl and the garbage doll, knowing that the garbage doll can have a connection with his real world counterpart, and knowing that tomoya had an awareness of the garbage doll's experiences in the other world, she only did what was needed to relay the message of hope to tomoya
but im really sure that time did turn back in the ending, using the power of the light orbs to grant a miracle
so my conclusion:
there is only 1 timeline is terms of how many real worlds exists, i doubt there is another real world which tomoya's consciousness suddenly just gets transported to where nagisa is alive and the other one is where she is dead, there is only 1 real world
there are 2 dimesions, the real world and the imaginary world, ushio is the counterpart of the girl as tomoya is to the garbage doll but they are not the same entities
in that one real world timeline, time was turned back and events were changed in terms of nagisa surviving her delivery
[/spoiler]
well just my 2 cents, ill be leaving these to the "experts"
I don't understand this timeline crap, anyway...
Wow... Clannad's ending is causing probably as much controversy as School Days -__-'
I personally really liked the series (whereas I HATED School Days) and I don't find the need to bash on the ending or any part of it.
I thought the ending was pretty much.... predictable? Clannad always had that magically feeling tied to it (especially with the alternative universe) so even if it wasn't "time travel", Tomoya could've just went to another identical world where Nagisa lives ^^
So... I'm pretty satisfied with how it ended up and I really recommend =) Although I loved Kyou and I wish they could've expanded more on her character T___T
I disagree with the posted Timeline as it doesn't make sense with the anime presentation.
Here is my own timeline
Timeline 1 (never shown)
Nagisa and Tomoya get together but Tomoya doesn't help out anyone and Nagisa dies, Ushio dies later. Tomoya is transported back in time to the "Hill";
Timeline 2 (start time "Hill")
Nagisa and Tomoya get together and he helps out people but Nagisa dies because he doesn't have enough orbs (but gets more later on). Fuko meets Ushio via Tomoya. Ushio later dies. Tomoya dies as well but is transported back in time to when Nagisa is in labor (in Timeline 2, both Nagisa and Tomoya seem to have memories of or are connect to a parallel world where Ushio exists in some alternate form)
Timeline 3 (start time "Nagisa in labor")
Tomoya has enough orbs and is able to prevent Nagisa from dying. Ushio lives a healthy life. Fuko meets Ushio in the forest. Tomoya, Fuko, Ushio and Nagisa have a picnic in the forest.
I disagree with the original posted timeline since if the after events when Nagisa died were actually part of the first Timeline1 then why do they continually reference people who would have been involved in the Drama Club? (which couldn't have happened if Tomoya wasn't helping them out as Timeline1 states).
then what its the order for watch properly the anime?
God I love this anime. The first season but cute but mediocre. "After Story," however, blow me away.